Bizarre Take #18 - The "Enchanted" Fairy Dust

Bizarre Take #18 - The "Enchanted" Fairy Dust

                                           

A measure of Restraint. That’s all it was, and back then, many people were uneducated on the dangerous effects on chemicals, treating them as absolute cures. This exact idea is what was analyzed in Raymo’s piece titled, A measure of Restraint, which explores the discovery and soon disaster that radium caused through the early 1900s. Raymo uses various rhetorical features to enhance his writing, allowing for the audience to better connect with the storyline.


First off, he uses various anecdotes from history to help bring a storytelling feel to the piece, starting off with the tragedy of 2 young men and their unexpected discovery of radium, thinking it was magical glowing dust that would cure everyone. This pulls the audience in, as they are hooked in by this mysterious story of unknown characters. He goes on to use imagery, writing, “...she danced, eerily glowing in the sultry darkness…enchanted elfin sprite”. This maintains a playful tone that is conveyed to the audience, and describes this discovery in a very positive connotation. This lively tone, however, is quickly dissolved into a serious and foreboding tone when Raymo employs blunt diction, such as “The girl is dead. Others died or became grievously sick”. This abrupt transition hooks the reader in even more, as they are now clued in one what the storyline led to. Throughout this, he also uses various euphemisms to shade the notion of death, and phrase it as something more lighter, to show how people back then were simply unaware of the dangerous effects of radium, and any other chemical substances for that matter. Throughout the next paragraphs, Raymo goes on to use more familiar anecdotes, such as Marie Curie and her discovery of radium. He employs pathos through this to show the hazards radium could cause. While telling the anecdote, he also uses dramatic irony as well, as the reader knows what's coming yet the actual characters in the story don't. This is continually emphasized through his great foreshadowing techniques as well!

  • Marie Curie Lover,

  • Prisha

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 14, 2024 at 5:19 PM

    Your analysis of this is so well done! I really liked how you tied in the transitions Raymo used with the rhetorical effect it had - it was really insightful :)
    - Divya Dwarakanath

    ReplyDelete

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